EU's Kallas Urges Broader Truce: U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Must Include Lebanon, Hezbollah Disarmament

BRUSSELS, April 9 (Reuters) — European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged on Thursday that the recent, tenuous ceasefire between the United States and Iran be explicitly expanded to include Lebanon, directly calling for the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah to disarm. The appeal comes as cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah threaten to ignite a wider regional war.

In a statement posted on the social media platform X, Kallas warned that "Israeli actions are putting the U.S.-Iran ceasefire under severe strain," and argued that "the logic of that truce must extend to Lebanon." She emphasized that a sustainable peace requires addressing all active fronts involving Iranian-backed proxies.

Pointing to overnight hostilities, Kallas added, "Reports of strikes causing hundreds of casualties make it increasingly difficult to justify such escalatory actions purely as self-defense." Her comments reflect growing European concern that the Gaza conflict is metastasizing, with Lebanon becoming a critical flashpoint. Analysts note that while the U.S.-Iran understanding has temporarily cooled direct confrontations, it lacks clear mechanisms for curbing allied factions like Hezbollah.

The EU's top diplomat framed Hezbollah's disarmament as a cornerstone for Lebanese sovereignty and regional stability. However, Hezbollah, a political and military force integrated into Lebanon's government, has long resisted such calls, viewing its arsenal as essential deterrence against Israel.

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"Kallas is stating the obvious but missing the point," said David Chen, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "The U.S.-Iran understanding is a verbal de-escalation channel, not a signed treaty. Extending it formally to Lebanon would require a diplomatic framework that simply doesn't exist yet."

Layla Al-Mansour, a Beirut-based political analyst, offered a more tempered view: "This is a significant, public elevation of the EU's voice. It places Hezbollah's disarmament back on the international agenda, linking Lebanon's stability directly to the broader Iran-West détente. The challenge is translating rhetoric into leverage."

Meanwhile, Markus Weber, a former German diplomat, reacted sharply: "This is naive and dangerously late. The EU is issuing polite requests while the region burns. Hezbollah isn't going to disarm because of a tweet. This statement underscores Europe's irrelevance in the Middle East's hard power calculus."

Reporting by Inti Landauro; Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Reuters Diplomatic Corps.